Hot Springs and Bad Thoughts
by Gamana
Summary: Kagome stumbles upon Sesshoumaru bathing in a hot spring. Now that I've got your attention I am sorry to repot that this is not romance.


Well, I'm not sure I can explain this one. I've read a few like it but… it never quite happened this way in other stories. This is actually my way of putting off a very hard chapter in my Harry Potter story. This is my first _Inuyasha _fic. I don't know if I'm going to do another one. I've been slightly obsessed with SessXKag fics lately, so this is a nod in that direction.

I OWN NOTHING. But I make fun of everything.

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Kagome sighed scanning the ground for small branches and twigs for the evening campfire. The shard hunters had been pushing themselves to the limit in order to collect the rest of the shards, and Inuyasha, impatient as ever with his human companions, continued to push the group past the limit. Kagome set down her meager bundle of firewood and stretched the kinks out of her back neck and shoulders. She really didn't mind the hard work or even the grueling pace set during the day. What she desperately missed, desperately needed, was sleep after a long hard day. Her mind had been restless the past couple of nights, and Kagome was finding it hard to relax enough to fall asleep. The urge to get the last of the shards and finally kill Naraku was getting to her.

Kagome blew her hair out of her eyes. She would have to get it cut soon. She re-gathered her small bundle, and followed a small deer trail farther from camp. She was careful to mark her way by noticeable land marks. One thing she had learned in the Sengoku Jedi was to always know the way back to where you came from. _Here a stick. There a stick. Damn, no more sticks!_ At this rate there would never be enough wood for tonight's fire. She continued on for a bit muttering to herself before finding more wood.

Then the trail opened up into a clearing, and Kagome forgot all about firewood. Off to one side of the clearing was a hot spring. "Oh," she gasped. "This is just what I need, a nice hot relaxing bath." Kagome felt bubbly all of a sudden and could not wait to tell Sango about her find. She knew that her dear friend would be as excited about the idea of a bath as she was.

A splash brought her back to reality. All thought fled at the image before her. Mouth hanging open Kagome watched as a silver-haired, ethereal creature broke the surface of the water. _Sesshoumaru,_ she thought panting slightly. Kagome found it hard to breathe. The taiyoukai stood in hip-deep water and shook his head flinging water in all directions. Kagome stared at the broad shoulders, perfectly sculpted chest and abs that disappeared under water to leave the rest to her imagination. The stump where his left arm should have been hardly detracted from the overall beauty that was the Lord of the Western Lands.

Sesshoumaru ran his clawed hand through his hair combing its length behind his shoulders. Kagome was frozen in place with shock and other feelings she did not care to name. She saw him stop fingers still in his hair to sniff at the air. _I'm going to die,_ Kagome thought distractedly, fear trying to force its way into her mind. She dropped to her knees as her legs gave out. Sesshoumaru turned and pinned her with his icy gold stare. Kagome thought about screaming for help, but her vocal cords were not getting the message her brain was franticly trying to send them.

Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes and menacingly stalked out of the hot spring to confront her. Kagome's eyes widened and she turned bright red. Her imagination was not as good as she thought it was. "Miko," he said the word in a dead emotionless voice, anger boiling just beneath the surface. The danger signal was lost on Kagome. Facing the taiyoukai in all his male glory made her mouth go dry and she started to tremble. "Miko," Sesshoumaru repeated, very angry with the girl's reaction. He had hoped to frighten her into begging for her life. "You are unworthy to lay eyes on this Sesshoumaru. Kagome's eyes snapped up to his face, and she blushed even redder. Seeing that he now had her attention he continued. "This Sesshoumaru would gladly kill you for your error if you had not proven yourself useful for the time being. Rest assured that as soon as I dispose of Naraku I will kill you for this transgression."

_I'm so dead_, her mind repeated as she wrung her hands in her lap. Though, abject fear did not keep her eyes from flicking considerably further south of the taiyoukai's face every thirty seconds. She just could not help herself. Slowly her paralyzed mind began to make sense of what he was telling her. _Wait a minute_, she thought. _ Is he saying this is my fault? That ass! It's not like I came here looking for a peek. I'm not Miroku. If it is anyone's fault it is fate's fault. Fate has had it out for me from the beginning. Arrogant jerk. Standing there like those statues of naked Greek gods waiting for me to grovel at his feet and thank him for sparing my life, even if it is only for a short time. Bastard. _

Kagome seized her anger and held it close. Magically she stopped trembling. She furiously brushed her hair out of her face and looked Sesshoumaru dead in the eye with anger sending sparks through her royal blue ones. Sesshoumaru raised his eyebrows surprised in spite of himself. Regaining her voice Kagome opened her mouth and screamed, at the top of her lungs, the only thing that seemed appropriate at that moment.

"PUT SOME CLOTHES ON YOU PERVERT!"

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Inuyasha leaned back against the tree letting his leg dangle off his branch. He would never admit it but he was exhausted. He figured that the others must be tired if he was showing weariness. _ I wonder when Kagome will be going back for more of her tests. It would be a good excuse for a couple days rest, even if he got sat for it._ _Speaking of Kagome, she's been gone a while. _Inuyasha jumped down to the ground and started off toward the trees following Kagome's scent.

"Where are you going, Inuyasha?" Sango asked from where she was polishing her boomerang bone.

"Kagome has been gone too long," the hanyou answered scanning the tree line hoping that Kagome would save him the trouble of having to find her by walking into camp.

"She hasn't been gone that long." Sango said.

"Long enough for _her_ to get into trouble." Inuyasha began walking toward the trees once more.

"Inuyasha let Kagome have some time to herself." Sango stood and jammed her boomerang bone into the soft soil to emphasize her point.

Not one to back down from a challenge Inuyasha stomped up to the taijiya stopping only inches away from her. He opened his mouth to reply when Kagome's voice stopped him in his tracks.

"PUT ON SOME CLOTHES YOU PERVERT!"

Automatically both Sango's and Inuyasha's eyes snapped over to the rock where their resident pervert was supposed to be meditating and found the resident pervert looking at them with a rueful expression on his face. The hoshi rose from his rock and grabbed his staff. "Why would you assume it was me?" he asked in a wounded tone. Neither the taijiya or the hanyou had an acceptable response to that.

"Hey," the group looked down at the kitsune bouncing around their knees. "Why are you arguing? Aren't you going to go save Kagome?"

"Inuyasha hit Shippou on the head. "Of course we're going."

As one the group ran for the woods only to be intercepted by Kagome herself. They halted in surprise as the girl hit Inuyasha at a dead run. He grunted with the impact, but the small girl could not knock him off his feet. He grabbed at Kagome's hands which were fisted in his red haori, and tried to pry her off of him so that he could look her in the face. Kagome retained her death-grip and buried her face into his chest babbling hysterically. Inuyasha was so shocked it took him a moment to register his brother's scent.

"Bad, bad, bad girl Kagome. Do not prod the angry youkai."

"Kagome," Miroku asked worriedly. "What happened?"

The girl shook her head and clutched harder at Inuyasha. "Hot spring, Sesshoumaru, bathing, naked- bad thought, bad thought, bad thought. Down girl. It's not like he's a good little doggie. He's not tame. You can't just put him on a leash and- bad girl, very, very bad girl. Ahhggg! Why can't I get that picture out of my head?" She screamed at no one in particular.

The group stared at the miko with wide eyes. Inuyasha looked like he was about to throw up. "Oh dear." Sango voiced the opinion of the group. Inuyasha stared down at the girl attempting to burrow into his chest with his mouth hanging open. It couldn't be what it looked like.

Inuyasha's head snapped up. His brother's scent was getting stronger. He redoubled his efforts of getting the traumatized girl off of him and finally succeeded. He stepped in front of Kagome as Sesshoumaru stepped out of the woods. The taiyoukai was almost dressed for which Kagome was thankful. Though she couldn't figure out whether she was thankful he was wearing his hakama or that his gi was gaping open. His long wet hair was turning his white clothes transparent in places. Kagome sank down to the ground feeling her blush coming back with a vengeance. Her friends placed themselves between her and Sesshoumaru. Miroku gave her a lecherous grin; he was the only one to note her blush. Perhaps not the only one she thought when she realized Sesshoumaru was looking right at her.

"What did you do to Kagome?" Inuyasha demanded gripping the Tessaiga.

"Nothing as of yet." Sesshoumaru replied unconcerned. "You should learn to keep a tighter leash on your ningen if I catch her spying on me while I am bathing again I will not hesitate to kill her." Kagome practically glowed at hearing the echo of her earlier thought. She slapped herself to get rid of the image.

"Keh. Like Kagome would want to spy on you."

"There are worse ways to go." Kagome mumbled from where she knelt. Inuyasha whipped around and looked at her with his mouth hanging open. Realizing what she had said Kagome slapped her hand over her mouth. She cast an embarrassed glance at Sesshoumaru to see if he had heard. He had. His eyebrows had disappeared into his bangs. Kagome buried her head in her knees, and refused to look up, or open her mouth again. She heard a few more insults thrown between the two brothers and a threat or two from Miroku and Sango. Then Sesshoumaru said something about her being in heat and how Inuyasha might want to keep a close eye on her until it passed. Kagome moaned into her knees mortally embarrassed. When she finally looked up Sesshoumaru was long gone.

"What the hell was that?" Inuyasha demanded. Kagome could only shake her head. The only answer she had (Your brother is hot!) didn't really seem all that appropriate.

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After dinner, Sango helped Kagome gather some more wood, and a long argument it was decided that both of the girls were going to take a bath in the hot spring. Surprisingly enough Sango had been on Kagome's side.

Inuyasha was dead set against it. "What if Sesshoumaru is still there? I can't believe you would be stupid enough to bathe with that bastard in the area."

"Inuyasha, sit." The hanyou plummeted into the ground.

"I'm stressed, and tired, and horny, and I need a bath. Besides if he didn't kill me when I was alone with him before he's not going to waste his time now."

Miroku put his hand on her shoulder. "I know exactly how you feel, Kagome." His hand started to wander south. Kagome slapped him on reflex.

"Kagome is right." Sango put in. "If we need help we'll call out. We all know Kagome at least can be heard all the way from the spring." Kagome blushed at that no longer sure she wanted Sango to argue her case, but after her latest blunder she couldn't seem to bring herself to care. _Horny indeed._

Miroku offered to keep an eye on the girls and got a face full of dirt for his troubles. Sango stepped on him for good measure as the girls went and gathered their bathing supplies. On the way to the hot spring Sango voiced her surprise that Kagome knew exactly where it was.

"Well, you taught me to always watch where I'm going so that I could get back to the group."

"Oh, but I thought you wouldn't have noticed anything. You were running pretty fast."

Kagome blushed once more. _Gahh! I am getting so tired of this! _"I knew the way from before…" she looked down at her shoes. "By the way I'm surprised you agreed with me about the bath."

"Are you kidding," Sango exclaimed. "We stink. A bath sounds lovely, and I want it. Besides you are right if Sesshoumaru didn't kill you immediately he wouldn't stick around to do it. I believe it is safe. As safe as it ever is with that hoshi creeping about." She said with a sour face.

Kagome gave her friend a knowing look over her shoulder. "Come on Sango. I know that you secretly appreciate that Miroku would want to look at you, even if you wont actually let him." She grinned at Sango's blush. _It's cruel, but I'm glad someone else is blushing now._

"Kagome," Kagome looked back at her friend. "Umm… do you want to talk about what happened earlier today. I can piece together the truth, but you seem flustered. I was just wondering…" The taijiya trailed off. She was not going to admit curiosity. Sesshoumaru was a very handsome youkai after all.

_Here we go again. _Kagome thought turning red once more. "While we bathe. I'll tell you about it while we bathe."

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Sesshoumaru sat on a rock near the hot spring. He had hardly moved at all after returning to finish dressing. He was confused about his emotions for the miko. The miko intrigued him and that pissed him off. He had admitted to feeling something (he had yet to figure out what) and that pissed him off. She had surprised him and that pissed him off. He had let her live and that pissed him off. Over all he was very unhappy with the situation. It did not matter what else he thought of the miko. She had angered him and therefore should be dead. That is where the world no longer fit his view of it. The miko lived, and Sesshoumaru could not figure out why.

Sesshoumaru snorted at himself. It was all very simple really. The miko was a ningen, a ningen who had angered him numerous times. Her death at his hand was preordained. The fact that she was obviously in heat was non-withstanding. Nodding to himself for finding a solution to his problem he decided to relax for a bit and dropped into a light meditative state.

Some time later, he wasn't sure how long time meant little to him he heard voices coming toward him. He picked out the miko's voice and that of the taijiya. He growled deep into his throat. From their conversation it seemed that they had come here to bathe. The audacity of the miko was going to get her killed a lot sooner than he had planned.

He glanced around the clearing and found a tree that would be perfect for him to hide in and observe the two females. He jumped into the tree and settled in to await their arrival. It was not until the women were in the clearing and began to undress that it hit him as to what he was doing. He Sesshoumaru was going to watch two _ningen _bathe. He crouched ready to slip away with none the wiser when the miko's voice floated up to his ears.

"It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. When he came up I literally couldn't breathe."

Sesshoumaru's eyes bled red. _How dare that wench gossip about me to another unworthy female. _He glared down at the oblivious miko.

"But wouldn't he look kind of weird with the missing arm." _Kill it_, Sesshoumaru thought.

Kagome looked at her friend as if she were crazy. "No Sango, not at all. The arm looked, well incomplete, damaged, but he is still very ummm… god-like" Kagome paused. "He was very beautiful." She said wistfully.

Sango heard the longing in her voice. "Don't tell me that you have a… what is it you called it… a crush on Sesshoumaru was." Sesshoumaru stopped in the act of pouncing. _What is a 'crush?' _"That's suicidal you know."

Kagome waved her hand at Sango from where she sat in the spring. "No, no, not at all. It's not like I'm going to ask him if I could bear his children or anything." _ I should hope not_. Sesshoumaru was not sure what his reaction would be if she did ask that, but he was sure that it would be bloody.

Sango was looking at her friend with an expression that greatly resembled horror. "I don't believe you just said that. You have been around Miroku for way too long. But just to make sure you are not going to court Sesshoumaru, right?"

Kagome laughed. "No. Sesshoumaru is a gorgeous youkai, but he _has_ tried to kill me. He's too good for me actually. I mean, he is divine, untouchable, not meant for mortal hands." She leaned back in the water on her hands with a sappy look on her face. Then realizing what she had just said and what she had been thinking. Hands, hers to be exact, on Sesshoumaru._ Oh my god, I am ruined for other men. _ "Any way, all Sesshoumaru could be is eye-candy."

"Eye-candy?" Sango asked perplexed.

Kagome could have slapped herself. "Yes, eye-candy. Not something to ever touch… ummm yeah. Though it is fun to look at all the same."

"Oh," Sango said not really understanding.

Sesshoumaru, on the other hand understood perfectly well. In his mind he had just been demoted from god to trinket, and he was not happy about it. Just when he had thought that the stupid, undisciplined wench had learned her place she had to say something so completely insulting that he was hard pressed not to jump down and feel her soft flesh with his claws. He paused. Something was not right about that thought. He shook his head and went back to listening to the conversation not even mildly ashamed of his actions.

Sesshoumaru growled under his breath when he realized that the topic of conversation had changed. He considered leaving when something the taijiya said caught his attention.

"When are you going to be going back home?" Sesshoumaru had always wondered about the miko's origins. Her strange manner, and dress screamed foreigner, but she spoke the language much too well, and did not seem to be set back too much by the local customs that he could tell.

Kagome thought about it for a moment. "I have some tests next week, but I can skip them." _Tests? What kind of tests. _Sesshoumaru had not been aware that ningens did such things. The thought that they could achieve anything was shocking to him.

"Please don't. We need the rest, and Inuyasha won't let us otherwise."

Kagome laughed. "Okay, okay. I'll lie and say that they are important, but we had better get back to the well soon or it won't matter whether or not I go home. The tests will be over."

_The well? _Curiosity took over. Sesshoumaru wanted to hear more, but the females were not being cooperative. They had gotten out of the hot spring and were drying off. _If you will not tell me what I want to know then you can entertain me in other ways. _

In a flash he was standing before the miko, who was using her only towel to dry her hair. Kagome's eyes bulged. Sesshoumaru watched impassively as she turned red all the way down to the tops of her breast. He had to admit that the ningen did have a certain kind of delicate beauty, much like a flower, and almost as useless.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?"

Sesshoumaru valiantly did not flinch at the volume. His eyes slid languidly up and down her body. "Turn about is fair play." With that he walked regally from the clearing.

A moment later Inuyasha came barreling through the bushes. "Where is he?" the hanyou demanded.

Kagome whipped the towel in her hand around her body. "Sit!" She couldn't take it anymore. This had been the most embarrassing day of her life. "Get away! Go! Sit!"

"Make up your damn mind woman. I can't leave if you keep sitting me." Inuyasha recovered and jumped off into the woods to track down his brother knowing that he would never catch him, but running from an unstable Kagome all the same. Getting killed by his brother would be for more preferable than dealing with the hysterical girl.

Kagome dove for her clothes. She got dressed faster than she ever had before, because if Inuyasha was here now then Miroku could not be far behind. As if on cue the hoshi entered the clearing. Sango screamed and threw a bar of soap at his head knocking him unconscious. She then calmly dressed herself sure that the danger had passed.

"Are you okay Sango?" Kagome asked once she had calmed down enough to speak once more.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Can you believe that arrogant son of a bitch didn't even glance at me."

Kagome's jaw dropped. "What?" Sango could not mean…

Sango opened her mouth to speak then shut it not wanting to admit that she was jealous. "Sango, my love, must you hurt me so?" Sango stared down at the hoshi a soft smile on her face. "It's nothing." Kagome nodded. Sango tilted her head to the side still staring at Miroku. "Perhaps I've been a little to hard on him lately. I may just let him have a grope." She bent to gather her comrade felled by friendly fire and left the hot spring with the hoshi thrown over her shoulder like her boomerang bone.

Kagome stopped and looked at the path her friends had disappeared down, then she turned back to the hot spring. _This has been a weird day. An embarrassing day. _She glared at the hot spring. "I believe I will call you Fate's Spring. That old witch has always had it out for me, and today could only be her work." Kagome left the spring vowing to never return.

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Five hundred years later or six days depending on how one looked at it Kagome was sitting in class listening to her home room teacher explain about a class trip they were going to take to the historic Spring of Faith. Evidently, that little spring where she had been mortally embarrassed had worked its way into Japanese mythology and became a place for tourism, religious pilgrimages, and, unfortunately class trips _. Damn it. Why must it be like this? It's bad enough that I dream about him every night and wake up… uggghhh! I need a cold shower, and a new disease. I'm not going back there! Why did I have to mention that cursed place by it's newly minted name in the first village that we came to._


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